Search the Dictionary

An engagement between troops in war, whether on land or water; a battle; a fight; as, a general action, a partial action.

ake ready. [Obs.] His foe was soon addressed. Spenser. Turnus addressed his men to single fight. Dryden. The five foolish virgins addressed themselves at the noise of the bridegroom's coming. Jer. Taylor.

Floating at random; in a drifting condition; at the mercy of wind and waves. Also fig. So on the sea shall be set adrift. Dryden. Were from their daily labor turned adrift. Wordsworth.

The shadow or outlines of a figure.

ve armor; -- applied in mythology to the shield of Jupiter which he gave to Minerva. Also fig.: A shield; a protection.

of a bird of prey, as of an eagle or hawk; also a brood of such birds; eyrie. Shak. Also fig.: A human residence or resting place perched like an eagle's nest.

Having the form or nature of air, or of an elastic fluid; gaseous. Hence fig.: Unreal.

To tend to by affinity or disposition. The drops of every fluid affect a round figure. Newton.

An attribute; a quality or property; a condition; a bodily state; as, figure, weight, etc. , are affections of bodies. "The affections of quantity." Boyle. And, truly, waking dreams were, more or less, An old and strange affection of the house. Tennyson.

To fix or fasten figuratively; -- with on or upon; as, eyes affixed upon the ground. [Obs.] Spenser.

The fighting of two or more persons, in a public place, to the terror of others. Blackstone.

Fig.: In motion; in action; astir; in progress. The matter being afoot. Shak.

rayish, greenish, or yellowish color, carved into images by the Chinese, and hence called figure stone, and pagodite. It is probably a variety of pinite.

A diminutive person; so called in allusion to the small figures cut in agate for rings and seals. [Obs.] Shak.

A figure of a lamb bearing a cross or flag.

Cockfighting.

Cockfighting.

The art of calculating by nine figures and zero.

f a quadruped; or the two legs and two arms of a person. To be, go, or run, on all fours (Fig.), to be on the same footing; to correspond (with) exactly; to be alike in all the circumstances to be considered. "This example is on all fours with the other." "No simile can go on all fours." Macaulay.

to, or consisting of, allegory; of the nature of an allegory; describing by resemblances; figurative. "An allegoric tale." Falconer. "An allegorical application." Pope. Allegorical being . . . that kind of language which says one thing, but means another. Max Miller. Al`le*gor"ic*al*ly, adv. -- Al`le*gor"ic*al*ness, n…